I have not blogged since last Thursday. This is because I am TIRED!!! In no way do I want to minimize what the parents of single babies go through but twins really is a full time job. Just the feeding and diaper changes takes about an hour and we do that every 3 hours. So by the time you finish you only have 2 hours before the process starts again and there are plenty of other things to get done. We have worked out some type of schedule. I cover the late evening feeding at about 11pm and then Andrea handles whatever disaster happens overnight. She will get up and feed at about 3am and then I get up at 6-7am and do the morning feeding while she gets a few more hours of sleep.

The girls have been pretty good except for the late evening. They seem to get all tuned up every night from about 8-11pm. That may be helpful though since they seem to tire themselves out for the start of the overnight. We have started learning their individual nuances and habits. They have a different cry also. Riley wails while Reagan sounds like a bleating goat. Riley sucks the binky angrily and looks like Maggie from the Simpsons TV show. Riley also likes to trick poop. That is where she poops once but saves enough for a second poop minutes after you get done changing her. Several people have said all I talk about is poop but that is one of the things that dominates my days now. Both girls are back at the weights that the docs wanted to see so we do not have to go back to the Dr. for 2 weeks. I am happy about that because every time we go the copay for the insurance is $30 each. For those of you that grew up in Munhal that is $60 every time we take them in.

We had a bunch of visitors today and that was nice for Andrea as she can't get out of the house much yet. So thanks to Pavan, Kevin, Doug and especially Lisa for the yummy peanut butter pie. We are going to try the first overnight at grandma and grandpas house Friday night to get Andrea and I a little break. I know they will be fine but still wonder if we can make it through the night without them. The picture above is their outfits they wore for Christmas. As you can see Reagan thought they were ok but Riley was not impressed.

Christmas Eve

Things have been very busy at the Gregg house. Andrea continues to improve and is venturing off the pain meds today. Things went fairly well last night. We fed them at 10pm and put them down at 11pm. We got up and fed them at 2am and they went back to sleep quickly. Andrea got up and fed them both at 5:45am and I slept. They got a little mad at 6:45 and I got up with them. It is now 8am and I am now on duty and will let Andrea sleep as long as she can. Andrea and I have been a great team but I expected nothing less. She needed out of the house last evening so we ventured off to Target for an hour while my mom and dad watched the girls. Andrea always thinks it is funny when I get peed on while changing a diaper. She got paid back by Reagan last night as she got peed on and sprayed with a "poop fountain". That was her description of the event, not mine. I have quickly learned that you can not reason with an infant. I keep telling R&R, if you are happy when binky is in your mouth and you are sad when it falls out, why do you keep dropping it? They don't seem to learn though. Riley is very often silenced with a binky ( a pacifier for you non parents ) and Reagan is silenced about 80% of the time if I sing the mamamamama song that I wrote. Lastly, just a quick note to the inventor of the binky, bouncy seat and motorized swing, thanks! You are my hero!

11 days old

All is progressing at the Gregg house. R&R are doing well. We had a Dr. appt last week for Reagan as she had not pooped in a few days. The doc was not worried and that night she made up for lost time. When the big moment finally came it was a major blow out. She blew through the diaper, her jammies and onto the sheet on our bed. I could not have been more proud. Since then they have been feeling good and improving on the overnight sleeping thing. When they do have a bad night it is real bad. They take turns being grumpy so it lasts all night. Last night they slept for 2-3hours periods. What a change when you are thankful for 3 hours of uninterrupted sleep. My parents have been great and been over at the house as much as we want them here to help give us a break. We had another Dr. visit today and Reagan was back to her birth weight. Riley is a bit behind but that is ok. We will go back Monday and have her checked again. The doc was not worried. We are still learning our way but I am having the time of my life. I am working from home this week and probably next. I am already dreading going back to the streets on a daily basis. Andrea is feeling alot better and has been doing a big part of the overnight care for the last 3 days. Friends and family have been cooking for us and we appreciate all the help. My friend/neighbor Bob is even dog sitting boo today since he has been a bit ignored recently. I think Boo loves Bob and Patty more than Andrea and me. Andrea is already a GREAT mom and I know she will just get better. Thanks again to everyone for everything and to whoever invented the pacifier, you are my hero!

Stuffing her bra

Andrea is improving. She is more mobile and is alot more involved in caring for the girls. She will be covering most of the night shift tonight as I have to go to Greensburg for a meeting Friday. The dairy farm is in full swing. Her milk is here and she is trying to get it to go away. She had biguns before but WO MOMMA you should see em now. Her friend Patty told her to put fresh cabbage in her bra and it would help with the swelling. She even went to the store and got a head of cabbage for her. So on the advice of Dr. Green Grocer Andrea stuffed her bra with cabbage. I laughed way so hard I woke one of the girls. The problem with it was I was walking through Walmart and saw a Cabbage Patch doll and got strangely excited. As you may know I do sell produce for a living so I hope it does not affect me at work. The nights have been not so great still. The love to torment us from about 11pm-5am. We will see how tonight goes.

2 day averages

First Dr. visit went well, dad and I took them as Andrea is not allowed to leave the house unless it is on fire. Another night of little sleep last night but Andrea was able to help overnight for the first time. We now have 2 complete days under our belts so here are some averages

Number of diaper changes per day- 20

Bottles per day- 16

Hours of sleep per parent per day- 5

Number of times I get peed or pooped on while changing a diaper per day- 2

Number of visitors to the house per day- 5

Number of times Andrea cries for no reason per day- 2

Number of times Andrea says "Jeffrey look" per day- 15

Number of times my dad calls them "precious" per day- 6

Number of trips to Babies R Us for supplies per day- 1

Number of times Andrea says her boobs hurt per day- 3

Number of times friends have brought us food per day- 2

Number of times I am thankful for my 3 girls per day- I can't begin to count.

The first day of the rest of our lives.

We have now been home over 24 hours and they sure do poop and pee alot. They were very good all day yesterday and then they decided overnight to change. They took turns screaming all , and I mean ALL night. I made Andrea go to bed even though she didn't want to and I stayed up with them. By about 6:30 this morning I was spent. I had been up for 24 hours and I called my parents to come rescue me. They came over and took over and I slept for about 4 hours. I am back in the game now and Andrea is doing as much as she can. She is still moving really slow and in pain but it is getting better. All of our friends have been wonderful. Bob fixed my TV before I threw it out the window yesterday, Patty, Andrea's mom and my parents have all gone shopping for us. Jan is on standby at all times she said and Lisa is bringing dinner tonight and staying with Andrea while I run to Babies R Us for more bottles. I am hoping that there is a bit more sleep tonight but don't have high hopes. They have been great all day so they should be good and rested up to cause havoc all night.

Sunday

Mother Nature tried to keep me from my girls today but I finally made it to the hospital. R&R are doing great and Andrea is improving. We are out of here tomorrow at 10am. We are looking forward to getting home and figuring out how to do this by ourselves. We will have lots of help though. Both our families are close and ready to jump in and we have a bunch of wonderful ladies Andrea has met at the church that will keep us well fed for weeks. Several people have asked for the girls stats so here they are.
Reagan Lynn was born at 3:09 pm December 11th. 6lbs 2oz, 20 1/4 inches long.
Riley Anna was born at 3:10pm December 11th. 7 lbs 13 oz, 20 3/4 inches long.
We had several more visitors today and the highlight for me was watching my father feed Reagan for the first time. He looked like he could not be any happier. I know the feeling.

Meet Reagan and Riley

Wow what a difference a day makes. I just fed, burped and changed my two new beautiful baby girls. Andrea is moving slow and in pain from the surgery but improving. Reagan joined us at 6lbs 2oz and Riley at 7lbs, 13oz. The girls are great but they sure do poop alot. Today I got puked on, peed on and pooped on and I loved every second of it. I will update more when I have had some more sleep but all is good for now.

Tax deductions, here I come.

We did the Amniocentesis today and while it was not a pleasant experience Andrea got through it well. The procedure was not as bad as we thought it would be but the cramping afterwards for several hours was painful. We left the house at about 8am and got her home at noon. That was a long 4 hours and it wiped her out. We got the results back and the official word is that I am gonna be a daddy tomorrow. The girls lungs were done baking so at 1:30 the fun starts. We have to be there at 11:30 and the prep stuff starts. At some point Andrea will be taken from me and to the operating room. They will do the spinal, IV, cath her and then I will be allowed into the room. I think it best that as I enter the room that I inform the 15 or so people that will be there that I have every intention on crying like a little girl when I see my little girls. I am at a place in my life that I can admit that occasionally I am a cryer. I remember one time when I was searching a house for a trapped child in a structure fire. I looked and looked but was beaten back by the flames several times. After I had been outside several minutes and I had accepted the fact that the child was in the room that was still on fire and was surely dead I looked up and one of my partners was carrying the 6 yr old boy out unharmed. He had been hiding on a different floor behind a couch the whole time. The emotions that came over me were uncontrollable and I sat in the yard and cried in front of all my fellow fire fighters and EMS people. I have news for you, I was not the only one crying. One of my not so proud moments was when Andrea caught me crying while watching Extreme Home Makeover on TV. I may never live that one down. Andrea is also convinced that I cried at our wedding but I still stick to my story that I had something in my eye. My point is that real men do cry and I have every intention on proving it tomorrow.

And the winner is-

Not too much to report as of yet except that Andrea keeps getting bigger and the girls keep getting rowdier. We have fetal heart monitoring and a Dr. appt scheduled for Wednesday, an amniocentesis scheduled for Thursday and if all goes well with the results from Thursday a C-Section at 1:30 on Friday. Andrea will be in the hospital till Monday or Tuesday and then the real fun begins. I am busy getting all the last minute details done to be ready. We do have a winner of the guess the birthday contest. It is one of my best friends and old partners from my EMS days Kevin Laskovich. He guessed today and no one guessed any date after that so he is the winner. When I asked him what the wanted for a prize he told me he wanted both girls middle names to be Kevina. I think he may be disappointed though. That may be a hard sell to Andrea. I think I paid him off enough this weekend when I helped him clean up at his bar after a car decided to make the place drive through accessible. You may have seen it on the news. The picture above is from Saturday. Will update after Thursdays procedure. We are on the final countdown.

Less than a week

Well, we are getting close to the day that we have been waiting for for about 5 years and all of a sudden it is sinking in that things are about to change in a big way. Last night I held my neighbors 10 week old Cameron for about an hour or so and I loved every minute of it. I had it easy though as I knew if she started to cry, had a diaper blow out or was hungry that momma Maria would swoop in and deal with whatever the need was. All I had to do was the fun stuff. Cameron and I talked, played peek a boo and I beat her in 5 out of 5 staring contests. She then took a nap and I was done. How different will it be when Andrea and I are responsible for the crying, diaper changes, feeding, etc? Especially during the first 2-3 weeks when we don't know what we are doing and I will be a lot busier with Andrea recovering from the surgery. Oh, and by the way, double the babies. I would not say I am concerned as much as terrified. When my friend Adam went off to the Air Force survival training school for 3 weeks I told him that lesser men than him had been there, done that and did just fine. I guess I need to take my own advice and know that we will figure it out as we go and it will be fine in the end. Andrea continues to be pretty uncomfortable and not sleeping well but I think she sees the light at the end of the tunnel. I just wonder what is on the other side of that tunnel.

T minus 211 hours

We headed for our weekly trip to Magee today for fetal heart monitoring and a Dr. visit. All went well with the monitoring and there were a few contractions while we were there. Before the test a complete stranger walked up to Andrea and asked how many babies she had in there. We then went to see the Doc. We were happy that we were scheduled with one of the ones that we really like. We thought that she was going to have a pelvic exam but the Doc said it was not needed since we were going to do the C Section. Andrea was very happy about this as her "girl parts" are all jacked up and she knew it would really hurt. We met with the Doc in her office and she said that since Andrea still has the Cholestasis and now something called Pupps which makes her belly very painful that we would move the scheduled C Section to next Friday December 11th. She will have to have an Amniocentesis on Thursday though to make sure that the girls lungs are ready to do their thing. I put up an argument that I would like the Amnio. done sooner and if they were ready why wait another 9 days. She gave me a bunch of medical reasons as to why it is prudent to wait and I agreed. After all the last school she was in was medical school and the last class I took was on the difference between a chicken tender and a chicken fritter. I know you are wondering so here it is. A chicken fritter has over 30% breading. I bet you didn't learn that in medical school Dr. know it all. We then discussed having Andrea "fixed" while we are in there and the Doc said it was easy to do so we scheduled that. I told her it didn't really matter since I was fairly sure I was never ever ever getting sex again. The Doc laughed but I saw the look in Andrea's face and I think she agreed with me as she was scolding me for potty talk. So here is the schedule. Next Wednesday we go back for fetal heart monitoring and a Dr. visit. Next Thursday we go in for the Amniocentesis and next Friday afternoon we go in for the birth of my baby girls. Andrea will be in the hospital until Monday or Tuesday and they said that she would need to take it real easy for 2-3 weeks. Of course this will all change if the girls decide that they want out sooner. The picture above is what Andrea wanted to eat when we got home from the hospital. Pickles and milk, disgusting.

Fish on!

This is a non pregnancy blog but I thought that it was pretty cool. As many of you know my favorite (and only) brother had a double lung transplant last year. A friend of his submitted a story about them fishing together to a Charleston magazine and won first place for his essay. You can see it at http://thecharlestonangler.com/reelblog/winners-of-the-2009-charleston-angler-photoessay-contest/. Thanks to USAF Captain Lewis for being a part of Jason's life and being a good friend. You can check out Jason's blog at http://www.thesouldier.com/. Jason is scheduled to be in Pittsburgh next week so with any luck he will be able to meet his neices before heading back south.

They called

Andrea's Dr. called me this morning at 8am and we talked for about 10 minutes. The conversation went well and they are working on a plan of attack for the Cholestasis. We will be meeting with them tomorrow and will see what the plan is. They did say that they were not very concerned about the babies being effected and that the best thing for them was keeping them in the oven as long as possible. Luckily we are scheduled with one of the Dr's that we really like tomorrow so we will see what she has to say.